Few things are more American than perfectly gridded streets, apple pie, or an old Chevy, but there’s only one sport indelibly identified with the Stars and Stripes, American football.
Baseball may be known as “America’s national pastime,” but many would claim American football as the country’s true passion. The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) is certainly hedging their bets on that premise.
American football’s only brush with the Olympic Games came during the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The sport was featured on the program as a demonstration sport, pitting two all-star collegiate teams representing the East Coast and West Coast of the United States against each other.
The West Coast emerged victorious on that occasion, but IFAF hopes to strike a victory for the global growth of the game come 2028.
The federation recently launched “Vision28,” a group co-chaired by Pierre Trochet, President of IFAF, and Troy Vincent, Executive Vice President of Football Operations of the National Football League (NFL), with the goal of bringing American football back to the Olympic Games.
“It makes sense for a lot of reasons,” said Trochet. “First of all, we talk about the Olympic Games in America, we talk about the number one sport in America, there’s no one else bigger than American football.”
“It makes sense, of course, for a kick-off of the idea, but also makes sense for a long term plan,” emphasized Trochet. “This is not a ‘one shot,’ [we] try to get full inclusion for as long as we can.”
He envisions a world where American football is played globally. Part of that vision involves a change in format for the Olympic Games.
Tackle football was the format used in 1932, when the sport introduced itself to the five rings. However, flag football will be the format put forth for inclusion in 2028.
“We have a certain amount of maximum athletes that can be there, so we fit better with 5-on-5 flag football,” explained Trochet. “This is how we play the game. This is how IFAF play the game all over the world. This is how we develop the fastest.”
“It is just so easy to play,” underscored the Frenchman, “so what we’re going to try to do is somehow to grow together with IFAF, the IOC, LA28 Summer Olympics and the NFL.”
He added, “our key factor here is trying to take all those eyeballs [from the NFL], and to put a pair of sneakers on them…to make them play the game. It’s as easy as that.”
It may not be as easy as he’d like, given the continued prominence of tackle football in the United States, and the large field of candidates competing alongside American football for a spot on the LA28 sports program. Nonetheless, Trochet believes the sport has the right ingredients to earn at the Games.
He quipped, “you can’t spell flag without LA somehow either, right?”
He drew on personal experience when explaining the choice of flag over tackle football for the Olympics.
“As a former player in Europe, tackle requires a lot of commitment,” asserted Trochet. “Commitment to the game. Commitment to practice. Commitment to a certain preparation. Flag football is really a sport that can be played by everyone.”
He added, “you watch what is the best [of what] people want to see, one handed catch, spin moves, some kind of stuff that looks good on TV, that creates excitement.”
“We truly believe that we can convince millions of people to play the game, or to watch flag football,” said a confident Trochet during an exclusive interview with Around The Rings.
An additional advantage of flag football is gender parity. Flag football is played internationally by both men and women. Tackle, on the other hand, is very much a male-dominated format of the sport.
Importantly, flag football is distinct from the game played by the NFL. It doesn’t open the door to direct commercial competition between the international and domestic side of the game.
The attitude of mutual growth was underlined by Trochet, who stated, “you don’t compete with a partner. You find your space.”
Whether or not international flag football’s space is the Olympics remains to be seen. Flag football is still a relatively young contender on the Olympic scene.
“The push has to happen in terms of events,” explained Trochet. “Of course, there’s no competition here. We grow together.”
“We are partners, so we’re not going to compete on fandom, we’re not going to compete anywhere actually,” declared Trochet. “We just find our own market, our own way to develop.”
He stressed the need to grow the game globally, while also presenting the sport in a unique format. He looked to another successful condensed version of a team sport for inspiration, basketball 3x3.
“You have 3x3 basketball under the Eiffel Tower. Tomorrow, we can have flag football at the Brandenburg Gate,” imagined Trochet. He claimed, “we are very similar in audience and logistics.”
While 3x3 has yet to attract big names at the Olympic level, Trochet left the door open to participation of NFL players at the Olympics.
“There’s a lot of things that need to be solved, but there’s absolutely no reason it would not happen,” affirmed Trochet.
“When you have a game that wants to be global, of course we as an international federation want to have the best athletes in the world on the field.”
He added, “we still have a long way to go, but today, our partners [don’t] see any problem about it.”
Of course, flag football will need to earn a spot on the Olympic sports program before there are any potential trips by NFL stars.
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